Growing & Freezing Blueberries

I have grown two blueberry bushes for about 25 years. My bushes are as tall as I am now. I have never pruned them except for the dead branches. We do not have acidic soil so I do add an acidic fertilizer to them every few weeks.

For those of you wondering how to keep the birds from eating all of your blueberries without the use of a net, read on. This method has worked for me the entire 25 years of growing them. I pound steel fencing posts around my bushes. I have a total of 5 posts but my bushes are pretty big. I started out with only 3 posts. Next I buy the large rectangle aluminum pans, I cut them in half then poke a hole just below one of the crimped corners. I tie string, wire or whatever is handy to the aluminum pan and then to the steel post.

Why does this work? Two reasons: One is because the aluminum pan bangs against the steel post with the wind and the noise scares the birds. Two is because the aluminum pan reflects the light making it bright which also scares the birds. That is all I do and every year I have picked about 5 gallon bags full of berries.

Place your blueberries in a colander.

Using cold water, rinse the berries gently.

Place a few layers of paper towel on a cookie sheet and pour the drained blueberries on top. At this point look through the blueberries discarding any bad ones or stems.

Carefully remove the paper towel once the water is absorbed.

Place the tray into the freezer until the Blueberries are frozen for a few hours.

Once frozen place the blueberries into a large size bag. I use bread bags with twist ties.

Then place the bag of blueberries into a gallon size freezer bag. Don’t forget to put the date on the bag.

Once frozen, you can scoop out the amount you need for a recipe because the blueberries won’t stick to each other.

Frozen blueberries should last 12 months in the freezer. They will last longer than that but the quality of the blueberry will start to deteriorate.

I’ve frozen many things (fresh herbs, meat, etc…) but not blueberries. Great idea. I used to just bake up the remaining amount, over portioning the berries at times, just so that they wouldn’t rot. Thank-you!

Yes! Pull off the green leafy part if there is one. Quickly wash them and pat dry with paper towel. Put waxed paper on a cookie sheet and place the strawberries on without touching each other. Place into the freezer and once frozen put them into a freezer bag. That way you can take out just what you want without them sticking together. I even froze them one year smashed up with sugar like you do for strawberry shortcake. I put the mixture into small bags and I thawed them all winter long for strawberry shortcake desserts!

To freeze strawberries, remove the green leafy part and rinse quickly in cold water. Pat them dry immediately as you don’t want water on them for very long. Once dry you can proceed as I did with the blueberries. I have also made up the strawberry shortcake strawberries (squished with sugar) and froze it that way. It was such a treat in the winter having Strawberry Shortcake!

Once again this brought back fond memories of my mom freezing her blueberries (purchased from a farm market or roadside stand) on a cookie try then bagging them up … she’d pull them out in the middle of Winter to make blueberry muffins. Yum!

We have them at our farmer’s market as well Diane. It is just a small farmer’s market but they have about a half-dozen farmers who truck in their fruits/veggies, some even have fresh eggs, lots of honey as well. Blueberries are so good for you as well.

These look so delicious, Diane. Blueberries are among my favorite fruits. I don’t grow them myself, but often by them when they go on sale, and then freeze them like you do. It’s great to have some ready whenever the mood hits!
I look forward to your recipes.

If I knew this, I had forgotten. I am so grateful that you are pointing this out, because at times I have trouble with my muffins sticking in the pan because of the blueberries sinking to the bottom! Thank you, Diane!

We live in Southern California not too far from the coast and have been very successful with our blueberries. Funny, our neighbor just down the street (same sun exposure) hasn’t had any luck at all. We currently have a fairly unattractive “cage” around them to keep out the birds but I much prefer your set-up. Perhaps next year we will try that as our three bushes are slowly outgrowing their cage.

I keep 4 bee hives at a small blueberry and blackberry farm. I trade out some honey for berries. I bag the blueberries up in quart bags and pull one out of the big freezer to keep my wife supplied. I also make blueberry jam with a vanilla bean in the cooking process. Very yummy. I do pretty much the same with the blackberries. Thanks for sharing.

You’re welcome! Blueberry jam is on my list in the next day or two. What a wonderful trade with your honey! We would love to learn how to keep bees! Maybe once we retire. Thank you for sharing your story!!!

We have planted three blueberries into tubs this year, and I’m excited to see lots of flowers. I wonder if they’ll ever produce enough to freeze in years to come. I hope so, and if so, this hint on how to freeze them will be very useful. Our soil is to alkaline to put them in the ground, so the tubs may limit their size. We eat a lot of blueberries, but mostly frozen as they’re very expensive when fresh.

I’m curious to know what is already frozen in the bags under the blueberries. We have always done blueberries this way, but I was intrigued with the way you keep away the birds! Thank you for the info!